From a young age he already began to accept upon himself various customs and practices to rise in levels of holiness and sanctity. By age twelve he had taken upon himself not to gaze further away than outside his immediate four cubits of space. Furthermore, he began wrapping his face and covering his eyes, shielding them with a handkerchief like a blindfold so as to safeguard his eyes from gazing around unintentionally. He walked around in this manner for many years. According to some, this was his conduct for seven long years until his eyesight dimmed. (Esser Oros 22 Niflaos HaRebbe 106)
During one of Reb Zisha of Anipoli’s wanderings during his self-imposed exile, he reached Yozepaf, the home of Rav Avraham Eliezer Horowitz, the father of Rav Yaakov Yitzchok, who would grow up to become the Chozeh of Lublin.
Rav Zisha, as was his custom, seated himself at the very back of the beis medrash near the stove, a place reserved for beggars and wanderers. No sooner did the young ten-year-old child, Yaakov Yitzchok walk by, when the holy Rebbe Reb Zisha, wrapped in his tallis, turned his eyes towards the young man. The tzaddik’s holy eyes locked their gaze intensively upon those of the Chozeh and stared deep into his soul.
No sooner did their locked gaze cease when the child’s eyes began to tear and weep uncontrollably for an hour or two until eventually, they began to trickle with tears of blood! When this occurred the Rebbe Reb Zisha healed him and declared: “I have given you the nefesh and ruach of your holy soul; now turn to my brother, the Rebbe Reb Melech, and he will give you the neshamah!” From that point onwards the Chozeh’s soul was bound up with Chassidus. (Esser Oros 21, Ohel Elimelech 219, Niflaos HaRebbe 105)
